SyFy brings slate of comic adaptations to screen

Even more comics are heading to television, with SyFy naming four new shows in development.

SyFy has announced plans to bring a new slate of shows to the small screen, based on an assortment of popular comics and fantasy novels.

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Pax Romana is already moving ahead, based on the Image comic by creator Jonathan Hickman (current scribe of Marvel's

Avengers). Set to screen as a miniseries, the high-concept story sees the Vatican trying to prevent World War III by changing the distant past. Sending heavily armed forces back to Roman times, the show promises battles between modern soldiers and tough-as-nails sword-and-sandals warriors. Hickman will serve as co-executive producer alongside Warehouse 13's Stephen Scaia and The Walking Dead's David Alpert. Hopefully, SyFy can give this the budget it needs.

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It will be joined by adaptations of Frank Miller's (300, Sin City) Ronin -- a tale of samurai spirits, demons, telekinetic paraplegics and rampant biocircuitry, set in a dystopian future -- and Letter 44, based on Charles Soule and Alberto Alburquerque's graphic novel about a stealth mission to make contact with alien life in the asteroid belt. Terminator 3's Jonathan Mostow is onboard to write and direct the pilot, set for a full series development.

Clone, written by David Schulner and with art by Juan Jose Ryp and Felix Serrano, is also in development. The series follows Dr Luke Taylor, whose world is shattered when he learns he is just one of numerous clones -- all of whom are hunting his pregnant wife and unborn child. The comic is published by The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman's Skybound imprint, so no doubt SyFy is hoping to channel similar success. However, as a TV series, Clone may be uncomfortably close in premise to Orphan Black.

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SyFy also announced plans to turn author Lev Grossman's fantasy novel The Magicians into a full series. Taking the most familiar elements of Harry Potter and Narnia -- magical schools, secret fantasy lands -- Grossman's book framed the fantastic within the mundane, with lead character Quentin Coldwater dealing with his own social inadequacies and personal demons as much as darker forces.

The new shows mark a rededication on SyFy's part to push genre television. The network spent several years seemingly distancing itself from "nerdy" content - going so far as to show wrestling at one point, with cheap-to-produce reality shows filling other programming gaps. And, if new scripted genre based on beloved titles with built-in audiences still don't do the trick, there's always Sharknado 3 for the network to fall back on.